Target-Language Community Involvement: Second-Language Linguistic Self-Confidence and Other Perceived Benefits

Abstract: French native-speaking students (N = 20) enrolled in a university TESL program were asked to participate in a community service-learning project in an English-speaking minority community in Quebec. Results from this qualitative study indicated that active community involvement led to strong perceptions of positive effects. The principal effects reported by participants included greater linguistic self-confidence along with the perception of having improved their second language (L2) skills, increased knowledge about their field of study (L2 teaching), and confirmation of their professional goals, personal satisfaction from helping young children and other community members, and to some extent, greater knowledge about the local English-speaking community. The results suggest that community service learning may have been an effective way to enhance L2 learning for the participants in this study, with particular effects on linguistic self-confidence, and might be appropriate in similar contexts in ...